Don’t you draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy She’ll beat you if she’s able You know the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet Now, it seems to me some fine things Have been laid upon your table But you only want the ones that you can’t get
– Lyrics from ‘Desperado’ (1973) by The Eagles
Happy Friday.
There it is: the pieces for the Alice in Wonderland puzzle, spread all over my dining room table for me to pore over them.
I have a long way to go, but the toothy grin of the Cheshire Cat is done, the clock faces are done, the ill-tempered Queen of Hearts is almost done, and I have the houndstooth trousers of Tweedledum and Tweedledee are in place.
I guess I should knuckle down and complete the frame.
It has been foggy at night and into the early morning— and cold outside— the whole week, with a high of only 42°F (5°C) yesterday.
It is clearer outside tonight, and there will be rain tomorrow.
Posted on Tuesday night 10:34 PM by NWS Seattle @NWSSeattle on X: One more night of widespread fog, as seen from the Space Needle Panocam.
Here is the final installment of the batch of Danish stamps on my envelope!
Clockwise: 1983 The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Poet N.F.S. Grundtvig Issued Nov. 3, 1983 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Jane Muus | Issued in sheets of 50 | Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No watermark 747 A232 2.5Kr Brown red | N.F.S. Grundtvig, Poet
1987 The 100th Anniversary of the Danish Cooperative Bacon Factories Issued Jun. 18, 1987 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Bente Olesen Nystrom | Issued in sheets of 50 | Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No watermark 841 A289 3.80Kr Multicolored | Domesticated pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus)
1992 EUROPA Stamps – The 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of America Issued May 7, 1992 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Niels Winkel | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. | Engraving: Martin Mörch | No watermark 959 A342 3.50Kr Brown & green | Potato plant* (Solanum tuberosum) *I’m not 100% sure why the potato is significant to this anniversary. The first permanent potato patches on US soil were established in 1719 near Londonderry, New Hampshire by Scotch-Irish immigrants.
1989 Nordic Cooperation Issue Issued Apr. 20, 1989 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Birgit Forchhammer | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. | Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark 868 A312 3.20Kr Multicolored | Woman from Valby
1984 “Plant a Tree” Campaign Issued Jan. 26, 1984 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Tage Stentoft | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr.|Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark 749 A234 2.70Kr Red & green | Shovel and sapling
1982 The 500th Anniversary of the University Library Issued Nov. 4, 1982 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Lisbeth Gasparski | Issued in sheets of 50 |Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark 731 A221 2.70Kr Multicolored | Library Seal [Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2012 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 2]
Clockwise: 1986 The 400th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Sorø Academy Issued Apr. 28, 1986 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Birgit Forchammer | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark 816 A269 2.80Kr Multicolored | Sorø Academy and Heraldry
1981 EUROPA Stamps – Folklore Issued May 4, 1981 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Palle Pio | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark 680 A208 1.60Kr Brown red | Tilting at a Barrel on Shrovetide
1985 The 300th Anniversary of the German and French Reform Church in Denmark Issued Jan. 24, 1985 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Mads Stage | Issued in sheets of 50 | Litho. & Engr. |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark 769 A249 2.80Kr Magenta | Reformed Church (Reformert Kirke) in Copenhagen
1982 EUROPA Stamps – Historic Events Issued May 3, 1982 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Jane Muus | Issued in sheets of 50 |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark 723 A215 2.00Kr Magenta | Abolition of Adcsription* *Adscription means the state of being added, bound, or annexed. [Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2012 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 2]
Clockwise: 1983 The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Painter C.W. Eckersberg Issued Nov. 3, 1983 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Birgit Forchhammer | Issued in sheets of 50 | Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark 748 A233 2.50Kr Brown red | Street scene by C.W. Eckersberg
1983 EUROPA Stamps – Inventions Issued May 5, 1983 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Lars Klint | Issued in sheets of 50 | Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark 739 A227 3.50Kr Blue/ greenish blue | Proposal for Øresund Bridge, across Øresund strait to Sweden (the Sound)* *Ideas for a fixed link across the Øresund strait were advanced as early as the first decade of the 20th century. Almost a century later, a cable-stayed bridge was finally constructed (from 1995-1999), opening in Jul. 2000.
1985 United Nations Decade for Women Issued Jun. 27, 1985 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Hans Bendix | Issued in sheets of 50 | Lithography & Engraving |Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No Watermark 779 A257 3.80Kr Multicolored | Cyclist
1983 Nordic Cooperation Issue Issued Mar. 24, 1983 Perf. 12¾ | Design: C. Achton Friis | Issued in sheets of 50 |Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No Watermark 735 A225 2.50Kr Brown & red | Egeskov Castle (opened 1554), Kværndrup, Denmark [Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2012 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 2]
The Ebay seller in Denmark that mailed my latest acquisition of South African stamps, pasted a whole mini-collection of Danish stamps on the envelope.
Here are the first ones.
I will post more tomorrow.
Clockwise: 1950 Wavy Lines Stamp (Redesigned) Issued Sep. 21, 1950 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Johannes Britze & Julius Møller | Issued in sheets of 100 | Engraving: H. H. Thiele, Copenhagen | No Watermark 318 A32 10 Øre Green | Redesign of the original 1905 stamps* *These “Wavy Lines” stamps are the oldest stamp series in Denmark still in production, and second oldest in the world after Norway’s “Post Horn” stamps. History of the Wavy Lines stamp A public competition was held in 1902 to find a new stamp design that was simple to understand and easy to print. Architect Julius Therchilsen came up with the winning design. Most of the elements in his design were derived from the Danish coat of arms: the lions, crown and hearts. Three broken wavy lines on the stamp represent the three main waterways in Denmark. Printing of the new stamps began in 1905 by H.H Thieles bogtrykkeri in Copenhagen with the 2, 3 and 4 øre stamps. These were made using the letterpress method. The stamps were very popular and were reissued over the years in increasing values and varying colours, to keep up with inflation. Source: stamps.mybalconyjungle.com
1982 EUROPA Stamps – Historic Events Issued May 3, 1982 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Jane Muus | Issued in sheets of 50 | Engraving: Czeslaw Slania | No watermark 724 A215 2.7Kr Blue | Women’s Suffrage 1915* *Women in Denmark gained the right to vote on 5 June 1915.
1989 Tourism Industry Issued Feb. 16, 1989 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Ponsaing | Issued in sheets of 100 | Engraving: Arne Kühlmann | No watermark 865 A309 3.20Kr Dark green | The Little Mermaid, sculpture by Edvard Eriksen
1988 Individual Speedway World Motorcycle Championship in Denmark Issued Jun. 16, 1988 Perf. 12¾ | Design: Jørn Fabricius | Issued in sheets of 50 | Lithography | No watermark 856 A302 4.10Kr Multicolored | Motorcyclists at Vojens Speedway Center [Sources: stampworld.com, Scott 2012 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 2]
Here’s December.
This cartoon is from South African Sunday paper Rapport.
The piggy/ piggy bank is called Savings. The lion is Black Friday. The vulture is Christmas. The hyena is Janu-worry, and says “I say! Leave a little something for us.” [Cartoon by Dr. Jack, published in Rapport newspaper].
I liked the Wordle word of today.
As the saying goes: “My karma ran over your dogma”.
(My actions trumped your rigid beliefs).
kar·ma
/ˈkärmə/ noun
(in Hinduism and Buddhism) the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.
“a buddha is believed to have completely purified his karma” informal use
destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.
“there’s something highly satisfying when karma strikes”
dog·ma
/ˈdôɡmə/ noun
a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.”the rejection of political dogma”
[Definitions from Cambridge English Dictionary online].
I cannot remember when last I went shopping (in a mall) on Black Friday, and I have no intention to do that ever again.
I also count myself lucky when I don’t have to travel during crunch times such as Thanksgiving weekend.
The New York Times had a whole report today about the plots New Yorkers have to hatch to get themselves to one of their three area airports (it’s not easy with public transportation, and very expensive with Uber or a cab). The article also mentioned this incident of three weeks ago, at La Guardia airport: a raccoon dangling on a wire from the ceiling at the Spirit Airlines Terminal. Oh man. P.S. ‘LaGuardia of the Galaxy’ —the comment by ivejafro that garnered 10,100 likes— is a reference to the character ‘Rocket Raccoon’ from Marvel Comics and the movie franchise Guardians of the Galaxy 😆 [Screenshot of a cbsnews post on Instagram]
Looking out west from my usual perch on the corner of 14th Avenue East and Thomas Street. This is 4 pm, on the nose. The sun made a brief appearance before the clouds obscured it again. Its setting appears further to the south on the horizon this time of year (to the left, outside of the picture frame).
The rainy weather has stopped, and the forecast for the next week or so can be described as ‘morning fog, and partly sunny the rest of the day’.
The lows will be mid- to high 30s (3 °C) and the highs 46°F (8 °C) or so.
Looking south along 19th Avenue East by Stevens Elementary School, just as the light was fading today. (Stevens Elementary School was on a list of schools to be closed, but Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones announced just yesterday that he and the school board will no longer pursue school closures and consolidations to solve the Seattle school district’s multi-million dollar budget shortfall.)
I need to die before I’m dead when my heart is still fertile and red before I eat the darkened soil of doubt
give me two lips and bright ink for tongue to write the earth one vast love letter swollen with the milk of mercy
– From the poem ‘Rebel Song’ by Breyten Breytenbach
Breytenbach in 1995 ‘Breytenbach was a political dissenter against the ruling National Party and its white supremacist policy of apartheid in the early 1960s. He was a founding member of the dissident literary movement of Afrikaner writers, the Sestigers in 1961, and participated in protests against the exclusion of black youth from educational pathways’. [Picture and text from Wikipedia]The iconic South African writer and activist Breyten Breytenbach passed away in Paris, France, yesterday (he was 85). His wife Yolande was by his side.
Breytenbach wrote mostly in Afrikaans, but also in English. He was a fierce critic of apartheid as he embarked on his long and illustrious career, as a writer that would redefine the Afrikaans literary landscape.
In 1960, Breytenbach left South Africa under a self-imposed exile.
After a two-year tour of Europe, he settled in France (he later became a French citizen).
In 1962 he married a French woman of Vietnamese ancestry, Yolande: a criminal act under South African law at the time.
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 and Immorality Act (1950) made it a criminal offence for a person to have any sexual relations with a person of a different race.
In 1975, Breytenbach was arrested in South Africa after travelling there on a false passport. His intention was to help black Africans organize trade unions, and to recruit members for a branch of the African National Congress (ANC) for white people. He sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for high treason, the first two in solitary confinement in in Pretoria Central Prison’s maximum security wing. He was released after seven years, thanks to a campaign led by former French President Francois Mitterand.
In 1984, his memoir The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist was published, describing aspects of his imprisonment.
The 2024 Davis Cup* final is tomorrow.
The Netherlands is playing in the final for the first time ever, and have their work cut out for them against Italy.
Italy won the Davis Cup in 1976 and 2023, and was the runner-up on six other occasions.
This year they have the world No 1 on their team: Jannik Sinner.
The Dutch team: Tallon Griekspoor (singles), Botic van de Zandschulp (singles), Jesper de Jong (singles), Wesley Koolhof (doubles), Robin Haase (doubles)
The Italian team: Jannik Sinner (singles), Lorenzo Musetti (singles), Matteo Berrettini (singles), Andrea Vavassori (doubles), Simone Bolelli (doubles)
Update Sun 11/24: Congrats to Italy for winning the Davis Cup. They retained their title, defeating the Netherlands 2–0 in the final.
*The Davis Cup (founded in 1900) is the premier international team event in men’s tennis. It is organized by the International Tennis Federation and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world’s largest annual team sporting competition. [From Wikipedia]
On Friday in Malaga, Tallon Griekspoor (pictures below; stills from the tennischannel.com streaming service) battled back to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4, in a fast-paced showdown to send his nation through against Germany in the semi-final.
The Cheshire Cat to Alice: “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
Alice: “How do you know I’m mad?”
The Cheshire Cat: “You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
– From Lewis Carroll’s book ‘Alice in Wonderland’ ( 1865)
Happy Friday.
It’s time for another 1,000-piece puzzle for me, and I ordered one from Amazon, called ‘Most Everyone is Mad*’ by the puzzle maker Ravensburger.
*Mad: completely unrestrained by reason and judgment; unable to think in a clear or sensible way (definition by Merriam-Webster).
These stamps from Canada were on an envelope that had arrived from an Ebay seller.
Provincial Emblems Issued Apr. 28, 1965 Perf. 12 | Recess printing | No watermark 981 441 5c Red-brown, deep bluish-green and mauve | Prairie Crocus and Arms of Manitoba [Source: 1997 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue, Part 1 British Commonwealth, stampworld.com]Rehabilitation Issued May 29, 1980 Perf. 12½ | Litho printing by Ashton Potter | No watermark 979 440 17c Gold and ultramarine | “Helping hand” [Source: 1997 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue, Part 1 British Commonwealth, stampworld.com]Centenary of “Oh Canada” (national song) Issued Jun. 6, 1980 Perf. 12½ | Litho printing by Ashton Potter | No watermark 981 441 17c Multicolored | Calixa Lavallee (Composer), Adolphe-Basile Routhier (Original Writer) and Robert Stanley Weir (writer of English Version) [Source: 1997 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue, Part 1 British Commonwealth, stampworld.com]Canada Day (Maps showing Evolution of Canada from Confederation to Present Day) Issued Jun. 30, 1981 Perf. 13×12½ | Se-tenant pair, part of a strip of four | Raymond Bellemare Engraving: British American Bank Note Company, Ottawa | No watermark 1015 454 17c Multicolored | Canada in 1905 1015 454 17c Multicolored | Canada since 1949 [Source: 1997 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue, Part 1 British Commonwealth, stampworld.com]Beneficial Insects Issued Oct. 19, 2010 Perf. 13×13¼ | Issued in souvenir sheet of 5 |Keith Martin Engraving: Cie canadienne des billets de banque | No watermark 2623 7c Multicolored | Large Milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) 2625 9c Multicolored | Dogbane Beetle (Chrysocus auratus) [Source: stampworld.com]
Rafael Nadal’s storied tennis career ended Tuesday with Spain’s quarterfinal exit from the Davis Cup. The 38-year-old is walking away after winning 22 Grand Slam titles and two Olympic gold medals and posting 1,080 wins in tour-level singles matches.
“You never want to get to this point,” Nadal said in Spanish following Tuesday’s matches vs. the Netherlands in Málaga, Spain. “I’m not tired of playing tennis. The body has reached a point where it doesn’t want to go on, and I have to accept the situation. I feel privileged to have extended my career longer than I expected.”
—Cindy Boren and Glynn A. Hill reporting for the Washington Post
Headline and picture from the Washington Post. The doodles are mine. 🤗
The time came to bid Beantown goodbye on Tuesday afternoon, and fly back to the Pacific Northwest.
There was a rainstorm with strong winds as we made our final approach into SeaTac Airport, which made for a rough landing, but once we started taxiing on the runway, everything was OK.
Pictures:
Looking up while waiting for my Uber driver on Main Street across from the MIT campus in Cambridge; in Uber car in the Ted Williams Tunnel again; at the gate at Boston Logan airport (dry and calm); arriving at the gate at Seattle-Tacoma airport (wet and stormy); restaurant PF Chang’s dragon at Seattle-Tacoma airport’s North Terminal.
The MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. It hosts collections of holography, technology-related artworks, artificial intelligence, architecture, robotics, maritime history, and the history of MIT. [Source: Wikipedia]
The MIT Museum at the Gambrill Center (completed 2022) occupies the first three floors of the multipurpose building at 314 Main Street. The museum is designed to “turn MIT inside out” (according to MIT Museum Director John Durant), inviting the community at large to join the conversation and participate in the creation of research projects and solutions.Kismet, an early social robot (built in 1997) from the MIT Artificial Intelligence. It had movable ears, eyebrows, eyelids and lips.Endgame, a chess machine invented in 1950 by Claude Shannon after he published a groundbreaking paper called “Programming a Computer for Playing Chess”.Atom model kit, circa 1943.Medusa (1985), a computer-generated holographic stereogram by the MIT Spatial Imaging Group and the MIT Media Laboratory.The famous Milk Drop Coronet (1957) photograph, made with pioneering high-speed flash photography.Black Panther comic Jungle Action #12 featured the first Black superhero, and featured an MIT alumnus as fictional supervillain Erik Killmonger (bottom right).A genetically engineered pink chicken. The real chicken has pinkish bones and pinkish muscles as well.3D Models that explain hoe CRISPR technology works (used for gene splicing and editing).A journal book from the museum store.
Here are a few pictures of buildings and artifacts that caught my eye.
Here is a beautiful flatiron building at the junction of Pleasant Street and River Street in Cambridge with lots of copper on the outside (the green). It was built in 1899, and its most recent renovation was done in 2020 with the repair and replacement of some of the doors and windows, and updates to the wiring and plumbing inside.This firehouse is just a few blocks down on River Street in Cambridge. Engine Company No. 6 was established in 1852 as Pioneer Engine Company No. 6 and was located in a building on Pioneer Street in Ward 2, Kendall Square. They moved into this building at 176 River Street in 1891 and has been there ever since.I love old-fashioned hardware such as this walk signal push-button.The First Baptist Church on River Street is undergoing a few renovations. The church is a tall single-story brick structure, with sandstone trim and decorative detailing in terra cotta, and has Gothic Revival styling. It was constructed in 1881.The Old State House, also known as the Old Provincial State House, was built in 1713. It was the seat of the Massachusetts General Court until 1798. It is the oldest surviving public building in the city.The Park Street Congregational Church is on the corner of the Boston Common. The Boston Common is the oldest public park in the US.The Massachusetts State House (built 1795-1798), also known as the New State House (to distinguish it from the Old Statehouse), as seen from the Boston Common. The building is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. That is gold foil on the dome, put on in 1997 at a cost of $300,000 (and previously done in 1969 for $36,000). Another $20.3 million renovation project has gotten underway just this year.This is the tombstone of John Hancock in the Granary Burying Ground near the Boston Common. Hancock was the first and third Governor of Massachusetts; in office between May 1787 and October 1793.Central Station on the Red Line has benches decorated with colorful tiles.I took pictures of all the little decorative tile inlays on the pillars across the tracks. I posted them all. 🤗..........Macy’s department store in downtown Boston takes up the entire city block, the same way as the one in New York City does.Unable to pay its bills after decades at the heart of Boston’s cultural life, the Boston Opera House closed its doors in 1991 and began physically deteriorating at an alarming rate. Now, however, after a lavish restoration in the early 2000s, the Opera House has a new vitality. The Boston Opera House was completed in 1928 as a tribute to Benjamin Franklin Keith, a leading figure in vaudeville, so popular in the United States in the years before.And here we are today— a collage of modern glass and steel facades, caught in the zoom lens of my phone’s camera.
